How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole

I recently got the privilege of being asked to do an interview with Toni Pennacchia, the host of Spoiler Alert Radio. Now if you don’t know about Spoiler Alert Radio, it’s a very cool podcast about all things film, locally and globally. She interviews filmmakers and such from around the world about their films, their processes, how they finance their projects, and more: basically, all the stuff you want to know!

Apparently, she had seen my short animation, How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole, on B-Side and e-mailed me about a possible interview and sending my short animation to their film festival The MergingArts Short Short Story Film Festival, which tours the New England area in November 2008. I, of course, said yes to both! Then realized, “OH (Insert Your Own Expletive)! I’ve never done a radio interview before!!” Fortunately, though, I didn’t have too much time to think about it because a couple of days later I was on the phone with Toni doing the interview.

I would love to say I was as cool as a cucumber during the interview, but I was extremely nervous! But Toni does a good job of putting you at ease and I just tried to do my best to give more than the one-word answer … an interviewer’s worse nightmare, I’m sure. We basically talked about my first short animation, How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole, my music videos for The Gaslights, Last Dollar & God, Guns & Glory, my day job career as a Designer/Video Editor/Animator and if I have any upcoming projects. I think I did okay … I definitely learned a lot from it! And if I’m ever privileged enough for another interview I think I’ll be more ready for it … although I’m sure my first thought will still be “OH (Insert Your Own Expletive)!!”

It aired live on Sunday, June 8th from 7-7:30PM EST on 88.1FM, WELH, Providence, RI, streaming at Brown University Student and Community Radio. And you can now listen to the podcast at Spoiler Alert Radio’s website by clicking here.

If you listen to it … well, first off, THANKS! and remember it’s my first interview … so be kind! ;b

Still Animated,
Mary

Hey Y’alll!

For your full resolution TV viewing pleasure you can now download my dvds! Just go to www.maryctaylor.com/shop.html and download one or more today!

Check it out today! And keep animated!

-Mary Mary

How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole will be screening this Saturday April 12 at the San Francisco Women’s Film Festival. So if you or any of your friends and family will be in the area, check it out!

Also a new Gaslights music video and DVD with lots of extras is coming soon! Be on the lookout for it in the coming weeks. In the meantime visit www.maryctaylor.com/shop.html to get a t-shirt and/or poster of the artwork, or visit The Gaslights website to download some desktop wallpaper.

How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole and Last Dollar are now available on DVD at www.maryctaylor.com/shop.html!

How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole is a cute little children’s animation your little ones will love! And with Last Dollar you’ll get your Gaslights fix and remember how much fun they are to see live!

And from How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole get your little one a Gordon T-Shirt or get your own Gordon or Square Peg T-Shirt for yourself! And from the upcoming God Guns and Glory animation, get your “You Have the Power Voice It and Vote” with the American Flag quilt T-Shirt!

Visit www.maryctaylor.com/shop.html Today!

How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole will be screening on Oscar Day Sunday the 24th - 12:45pm-1:15pm at the San Francisco Int’l Children’s Film Festival as a part of WonderCon 2008. So if you or any of your friends and family will be in the area, check it out!

Holy COW!!!! I don’t know what I did to get on the front page of Yahoo!
but Woohoo!!! Yahoo!!! My friend Bryan took this screen capture of it …
check it out!!!

Yahoo Front Page

-Mary

Okay … it’s just my company’s newsletter, but still I got front page! You can check out the article here … PlattForm Podium Article.

L.A. Screening Sat. Oct. 6

If you happen to be in the L.A. area this Saturday, Oct. 6th and are looking for something to do … my short animation, How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole, will be screening at 1p.m. at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as part of the Los Angeles Int’l Children’s Film Festival.

Yeah!!! I am so excited!!!

I was notified this morning that my animation, How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole, will screen at the Los Angeles Int’l Children’s Film Festival Saturday, Oct. 6 at 2:15 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

So if you’re in L.A. then, go check it out. You can check out the websites at the links below.

http://www.lachildrensfilm.org/

http://www.lacma.org/

Well, I finally made it into a film festival. My short animation, How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole, was in the Art Institute Showcase of the Phoenix Film Festival last April. Woohoo!!

In December of 2006 I finished my first animation for which I wrote, animated, and directed … How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole. It took me a couple of months in my spare time to complete. It probably would have taken me a couple of weeks if I had had the opportunity to work full-time on it.

I hadn’t made an animation of my own in years, since college, and those were very amateur … so I finally decided last year that I was going to make time to create one and have it done by the December 10th deadline for the KC Jubilee Film Festival. I had no idea what the story was going to be so I started brainstorming a bit and the old adage “square peg into a round hole” popped into my head. So I mulled it over some and then boom it entered into the foreground of my brain and I sketched the initial character and storyboard out on paper in about half an hour. Click on the thumbnail below to view the intial storyboard.

First Sketch & Storyboard for How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole

Now I had something to work with! The next step was to create the character sheets. I created one for the main character, who I named Gordon, and one for the Square Peg. I drew them up in Illustrator because one, I planned on animating in After Effects, and two, I like the brush styles you can get using Illustrator. Click on the thumbnails below to view the character sheets.

Gordon Character Sheet

Square Peg Character Sheet

Next, was to create a more polished storyboard. Once I went back and looked at the original sketched storyboard I decided to make a few changes and added in some voice-over. Click below to view the final storyboard.

Storyboard for How To Put a Square Peg Into a Round Hole

Then I finally got to animating … where things got refined just a little bit more. Once I had it pretty close to finished I needed to find someone to either create the music or find some canned music. Luckily I was able to find someone to create the music, Randy Skach of Western Automatic Music. I told him I wanted some silent film type music and he came through with flying colors. So the only obstacle I had left was the voice over. I called a guy in to do the voice over but once I edited it in I decided it was much better without … especially since I was using silent film type music. So I just re-edited a bit by adding in title cards like in the old silent films, got a co-worker to add in some sound effects and voila … done just in time to meet the KC Jubilee Film Festival deadline.

Unfortunately it didn’t make it in to the KC Jubilee Film Festival. But it got my butt in gear and now I’ve definitely got the itch to do another one. I’m also entering it into other film festivals … so I will keep ya posted. You can view the trailer below.

Click here to view the short film.